The monthly disability benefit to replace earnings, after any SOCSO Invalidity Scheme payout.
Monthly benefit gap to insure
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Net monthly income
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Target monthly benefit
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The income that stops if you cannot work
Income protection answers a blunt question: if illness or injury stopped you earning for months or years, what would replace the salary? In Malaysia the first layer of cover is PERKESO's Invalidity Scheme, funded by the SOCSO contributions deducted from your pay. It pays a monthly pension to insured workers who become permanently unable to work, but it is capped and based on assumed average wages, so for most earners it lands well short of their real take-home pay. This tool measures that shortfall. It takes your monthly income, applies the share you would want to keep covered, then subtracts whatever the Invalidity Scheme or a private policy already pays, leaving the monthly benefit gap you would need to insure privately.
Cover your net pay, not your gross
A disability benefit is meant to keep your household running, and your household runs on take-home pay, not on the gross figure on your offer letter. That is why the tool can derive net pay for you. Switch the income basis to gross and it strips out the statutory deductions an employee actually faces: the EPF employee share, which the calculator applies at 11 percent, plus the SOCSO and EIS employee portions of 0.5 percent and 0.2 percent up to the RM6,000 wage ceiling. These are the same KWSP and PERKESO rates used across the site, and you should confirm them against the current KWSP and PERKESO schedules. Working from net also avoids a common over-insuring mistake, because targeting a percentage of gross would buy more cover, and pay more premium, than you actually need to maintain your lifestyle.
RM8,000 gross, 75 percent cover, with RM1,500 already insured
Take an employee on RM8,000 gross a month who wants 75 percent of their income protected and already has RM1,500 a month from the Invalidity Scheme or an insurer. First the tool finds net pay: EPF employee at 11 percent is RM880, SOCSO at 0.5 percent of the RM6,000 ceiling is RM30, and EIS at 0.2 percent of the ceiling is RM12, leaving net pay of RM7,078. The target benefit is 75 percent of RM7,078, or RM5,308.50. Subtract the RM1,500 already covered and the gap to insure privately is RM3,808.50 a month.
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The teal block is the policy you would shop for. Note the grey tail past the target: that last 25 percent of net pay is the part you deliberately leave uninsured, on the view that a long disability also strips out commuting and work costs.
Choosing a coverage percentage you can live on
Most income protection policies cap the replacement ratio somewhere around 60 to 75 percent of income, and there is sound logic to not insuring the full 100 percent. A benefit that fully replaced your salary would weaken the incentive to return to work, so insurers price against it, and you also save premium by covering less. The judgement call is your fixed commitments. If a large mortgage and dependants eat most of your pay, lean toward the higher end. If you have a working partner, low debt, and a healthy emergency fund, a lower ratio may be enough. The edge case to plan for is the waiting period: many policies only start paying after several weeks or months, so you still need cash savings to bridge the gap before the benefit kicks in. Sizing the monthly gap with this tool is step one; matching it to a policy's waiting period and benefit term is step two.
Is the SOCSO Invalidity benefit enough on its own?
Rarely for a mid or high earner. The Invalidity Scheme pension is based on assumed average wages and is capped, so someone on RM8,000 a month will typically receive far less than their take-home pay. It is a genuine floor and worth claiming, but it is designed as a safety net rather than full income replacement, which is exactly why this tool subtracts it and shows the remaining gap.
Does income protection pay out for any illness?
Not automatically. Policies define disability in their own terms, often as being unable to perform your own occupation, or sometimes any occupation, and they exclude pre-existing conditions and impose waiting periods. This is different from critical illness cover, which pays a lump sum on diagnosis of a listed condition regardless of whether you can work. Read the definition of disability in any policy before you rely on the gap figure here, because the wording decides whether a claim succeeds.